Virgin train crash.

If any of you have seen the news today im sure you will be aware of the Virgin train crash in Cumbria last night. Well here is a picture from my archives, the 21st August 2006 to be precise, taken here, which is only half a mile from the de-railment site (in the distance on the mid left of the pic you can just see the top of the overhead wire masts at the crash site) . Ive used both the section of line and the train involved many many times heading between Newcastle and Preston over the last few years, and this has to be my favourite bit of the journey anywhere on UK rails, with such outstanding scenery and fast curves.

Suffice to say the media frenzy erupted with allsorts of non-sensical speculation, mainly from people who know nothing about the technical aspects of railways or engineering, and much rubbish was quoted. Stupid questions and demands were being put on whatever people they could get to be interviewed, asking Richard Branson personally why all his trains don't have seat belts, why all the trains were not being taken out of service immediately, and any other sensationalist and emotive crap they could think of. I don't know why this annoys me, but it does . . . . perhaps its the fact that trains are so safe (i will still feel perfectly safe taking this same journey in a few weeks). Maybe its the fact that one tragic death overshadows the 10 that have occurred on the roads since the accident, or maybe its the "lets attack and blame someone as soon as possible" attitude they have with everything. No one knows exactly why whats happened has yet, and will not until the technical experts finish their investigation, weeks or months from now.

Ages ago (see "crossing the border", June 06) i was banging on about the safety of the mk4 coach. Well today i think is evidence enough of the excellent design, manufacturing and engineering of the Pendolino - looking at the pictures of wreckage its amazing so many people walked out - even the majority of windows didn't smash (including the drivers windscreen) and the majority of the carriages look to have remained structurally intact - impressive when according to my crude calculations it had a kinetic energy of 420million Newtons to dissipate in seconds. Testament indeed to the skills and importance of good engineering, which ultimately can be the difference between life and death. As a final point i was on this very same train (City of Glasgow) on this very stretch of line just 3 weeks ago on the 3rd Feb, and whilst being very bored sitting at Carlisle, below i took a pic of what the inside looked like before the accident, the exact same coach is labelled 1 and seen here, sitting in a field.

Green Market

This is the Green Market in the Eldon Square shopping centre, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. It contained many small stalls, such as a cobblers, florists, sweet shop, and the Fish market to name a few. I assume it opened at the same time at the main shopping centre, 1977, hence why 30 years on it looks pretty dated, brown tiles being long out of fashion. These pictures were taken on Friday (26 Jan), about an hour before it closed for good, to make way for the re-development of the area and a new Debenhams. So I thought a few snaps to capture a "70s indoor market style" of the past were in order, the available light requiring a high ISO and hence post image smooth processing. The Green market stalls are now moving to the Grainger market across the road, or equally as close, a new Green market in another corner of Eldon Square.

Happy new year!

Remember, a dog is not just for Christmas, save some for boxing day! The flat screen TV on the other hand is good all year round, and doesn't need walking 3 times a day in the rain. This, I conclude, is why it gets put on a nice cabinet in the lounge and not in a box under the stairs.

Happy 2007 to all

Christmas 2 for 1

Two pictures this time of nothing particularly special taken from my "December misc" folder. The thing I love about autumn, as illustrated in these shots, is the skies you can get. When it isn't cloudy they are often crystal clear - at sunset giving a perfect transition from midnight blue in the East to orange in the West, or with a low sun illuminating things in a beautiful golden glow.

Top was from a Newcastle ramble over the central motorway A167(M) and town moor, long exposure with no tripod. Below shows on of my favorite things, a country eatery back home in Lancashire, with horses thrown in for good measure. I had fish and chips for my lunch there today :)

Homeward bound

Not taken any pictures recently and prob wont for a while, so i dug up this from my archives. Taken back in October on a very windy day, the RNLI lifeboat Spirit of Northumberland powers its way back to home to Tynemouth station, rounding South Shields pier. The wind was deceptively strong (id estimate force 8*), but being westerly it was coming off the land hence the low wave heights near shore. A look at the spray coming off the bow wave shows just how strong it was, whipping the water back, and out to sea plenty of white froth. When you consider the "7" class lifeboat is only 17m long (tiny when anything under 100m is classed as 'small craft' at uni) , its sea-keeping abilities are most impressive and design for the harshest weather possible are an amazing feat of naval architecture. One of my lecturers told us recently about how lifeboats were, at certain conditions, designed to be inherently unstable, which is what allows them to self right if they capsize - some seriously clever maths (who says it has no use) was scribbled on the board!

* Force 8, according to my lecture notes is

"moderately high waves of greater length, edge of crests begin to break into the spindrift. The foam is blown in well marked streaks along the direction of the wind - mean wind speed of 37 knots" (around 40mph)

Steel Grey

Apologies for slacking with the updates but ive been busy with serious school work and an "educational" trip to Holland. The latter was most interesting, seeing the world class MARIN research facilities , the unimaginably gargantuan Port of Rotterdam, and two nights in Amsterdam (one during an England away match). Despite this, the trip was pretty abysmal for photography, with it being banned for security and commercial reasons in the MARIN complex, and through a coach window at Rotterdam - also you cant take pics of the ladies in the red light district for those of you interested!

We went over on the Ferry (and got an engine room visit) from North shields to Ijmuiden courtesy of DFDS seaways on the King of Scandinavia which was great fun. The picture was taken approaching Holland in the morning, sailing towards the docks which have a large steel works alongside. To try and make the photo a bit more interesting and atmospheric ive converted the dull colours into a B+W photo on the comp. I have just realised its a month till christmas!

Bang!

Yesterdays explosive action in Geordie land! IS lens in action again..